30 of The Horde

You find yourself captured by Goblins. (We won’t ask, we know it is embarassing.) Looking for your escape, you begin to watch the Goblins. Suprisingly, they are a fairly complex bunch.

A horde is the name I use for any grouping of mooks or small humanoid monsters that only challenge the PC because of their numbers. A Goblin Horde or a Thug Horde or a Tribal Horde as examples. Here is a fantasy horde ready to interact with the PCs as needed.

1) Leader:
He is the new leader. He deposed the Old Greyhaired Leader a while back. The Horde follows him now.

The leader tends to wear a great deal of religious paraphanalia (if shamanaistic, this tends to be bones and feathers). He will espouse religious sounding drivel and quote any religious text (badly) as needed.

2) Second:
He is a shifty eyed schemer. He helps The Leader with cunning plans. He also spots any disloyalty and reports it to the Leader. Both vicious and just mean, he revels in his power over the others. Realizing The Leader is both his key to power and the only thing keeping the rest of the Horde from killing him, he is totally loyal to him. The Leader often has to reprimand him with the back of his hand to his head, to keep him focused on the task at hand rather than his petty gloating and desire to inflict pain.

3)The Big One:
He is the largest and strongest of the Horde. He is of average brains, but slow in speed, so he is sometimes underestimated. His primary role is The Enforcer of Leader’s Will. He keeps everyone in line. He is also the main shock trooper of the Horde.

4) Squad Leader:
This is the toughest and smartest member of this Horde. He is in total command of his “squad”. He appears to be a loyal supporter of The Leader who has been generous to him and his squad. While he is a mercenary, he is a loyal mercenary (Once bought stays bought until his agreement is over). Eventually, he and his will leave this Horde to find a better one or create his own.

5) The Smart One: He is the smartest and most learned of the Horde. He is constantly butting heads with the Second and the Leader about “the smartest thing to do.” While he thinks he would make an okay leader, he really wants to be the number two guy. He is the group’s medic as well.

6) Hatchet: He is an ugly man who specializes in axes. He has carries a number of hatchets.

7) Greybeard: This is the old man of the group. He has been raiding with one horde or another since before most of these kids were born. He is the one everyone, except the Smart and Sly one, looks up to. He supported the take over from the Old Gray Haired leader with some reservations. He goes along with the Leader, but if he is doing something “totally daft”, he might speak up out of turn. The leader should listen to him, otherwise the group might have a new leader.

8) The Sly One: He is the one eyed master of the short sword. He is actually the smartest one in the Horde at the moment. While thinking about taking over, he is biding his time for the prefect moment. If nothing else, he keeps things in motion in the group (a whisper here, a “I heard Greybeard say…” there, and the occassional stolen item) to make the Second look foolish.

9) The Odd One: If this is a goblin horde, he is the hobgoblin. If it is a human horde, he is the dark skinned foreigner or the blond pretty boy. He is just like the rest of the group, but he stands out as different.

10) The Loud One: He says, “My Warhammer does my talking” all the time. However, he never shuts up. Some people are just loud and always talking. He is often hanging around with the Grey Beard or the Drunk One.

11) The Green Vest: His only distinctive feature is he is wearing a green vest, something he obviously stole from someone much better off than he a while back. Other than that, he hangs around with the Fat One.

12-14) Curly, Larry, and Moe
These three are inseparable. They are constantly poking, pushing, and fighting each other. However, when presented by an opponent, the three of them fight as a coordinated team.

15) The Fast One aka: The Knife One: He has a large, dagger like nose. He has cat like reflexes and strikes like lightning. He likes to juggle… usually his knives. He always seems to have a knife in his hand… usually cleaning the grime out from under his nails.

16) The Drunk One: He always has a bottle at hand. Often times you will seem him “sleeping it off”.

17) Giggler: He seems to be a jester of sorts. In reality, he is insane and a psychopath. He capers around and acts odd. He is often giggling at his own internal brilliance. In a fight he leaps, tumbles, taunts, and comes at people from all odd angles. This “drunken style”/ “acrobatic” style makes him a dangerous opponent.

18) The Silent One: He is the Horde’s master of stealth. He does some of the scouting, especially in urban areas. While is is fairly stealthy, he is no Ninja. This one works for the Sly One.

19) Sling Mistress:
She appears to be small and shy. In reality, she is just small because she is young. Unable to compete with the others in melee combat, she uses her sling to great effect. She is the horde’s ranged weapon specialist and back up hunter.

20-24) The Squad:
These five stick together. They appear to be the most skilled fighters of the Horde. They follow their leader and seem to have some degree of discipline. They actually drill and practice. They have better weapons and bits and pieces of military uniforms as part of their gear. They hold the rest of the Horde is distain, keeping themselves apart from the others.

25) The Hunter:
This one is all business. He is the main one who does the scouting and hunting for the horde. He likes to be alone doing his job. He finds the rest of the horde to be annoying.

26) The Fat Singing One:
He is the one that seems to be holding the Horde together with a quick word and a laughing smile. He is the group cook, so he has some degree of importance beyond that of his fighting skill.

27) The Hungry One: He is always raiding the Fat One’s supplies. Every time a PC sees him he is eating something.

28) The Pretty One: A Female Campfollower. And if this is a goblin horde, the term pretty is quite relative. Heck, as human it is quite relative as she is not that pretty or she could of hooked up with a better horde leader. She is always hiding somewhere once everything hits the fan.

29) The New One: He is the green new recruit. He is younger and a bit smaller than the rest. How he hooked up with this horde it is hard to say (maybe he is someone’s little brother). He is over eager to prove himself.

30) The Lowly:
He is the one that gets all the crappy jobs. He is the one everyone else can mistreat and do. He mutters that he doesn’t know why he stays. Really he stays because he has no where else to go. Someday he will avenge himself against the others who have treated him badly. He is your escape route, if you promise to kill certain goblins on your way out.

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Yay! a new 30!!! I like this one, but the lumps, like Larry, Curley and Moe could be fleshed out instead of being tagged under one entry. Larry was emotionally sensitive, Moe was a berating bully and Curley was the monkey-boy.

Yes, but if I named one Larry, then later Curly, then later Moe, many people would not of got the reference. As it is many people may not get the reference, so that is why they are defined by their group dynamic. That is why they are a lump.

The Squad are just as locked at the hip. Unless you think Squad man 1, Squad man 2, Squad man 3, etc with the same description would be prefered?

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A rather large armed group slowly walks the road. Unless you get to see what they transport, you could think it is a caravan with expensive goods, or the soldiers escort someone important. But this is a prisoner transport, on the way to mines, criminals on their way for punishment.

The soldiers may be willing to talk, the captain will have a few questions on you and the road, but they will keep distance, and part soon.